Strangers In the Night (Natsu X Lucy)
by BrokenIntoxication
Summary: A strange and seemingly inhuman man attacks Natsu. Lucy is alerted by Happy and rushes to the scene only to find Natsu unable to continue the fight. She takes it upon herself to fight the man on her own...


"Natsu!" Lucy cried as she rushed over to the now unconscious boy with the sakura colored hair. "Natsu…" she mumbled as she grabbed his wrist. She quickly felt for a pulse and let out a relieved sigh when she found one.

"I-Is...is Natsu…?" asked Happy the small, blue, flying cat as he gently landed near his best friend.

"He's alive Happy," Lucy responded as she starting ripping long strands of fabric off of her sleeves.

"Is he going to be okay?" Happy asked with tears in his eyes.

"O-Of course he is Happy. All we have to do is wrap up his wound and he'll be fi-" Lucy's words were cut off as a burst of blue light sailed past her and crashed in the background. She and Happy let out a brief scream as they were jostled. She quickly regained her composure and then shot a cold glance in the direction of their attacker. She looked back at Natsu and bit her lip, "I'm sorry to ask this Happy, but if I don't wrap Natsu up now...he'll be in trouble. I need you to distract whoever the man attacking us is...while I tend to Natsu. Once I'm done I'll fight alongside you."

Happy wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, "Aye Sir." He then flew directly at the man screaming, "This is for Natsu!"

Lucy looked away and back at the young man lying before her in an ever widening pool of his own blood. She finished shredding her sleeves and started wrapping them around his lower waist as tightly as she could muster.

His hand twitched. "Lu..cy?" Natsu mumbled. He brought his head up off the ground just a bit so he could look at her.

"Natsu please don't talk…" she begged as she tightened her makeshift bandages.

"It...re..ally...frickin' hurtss," he mumbled as his head fell back to the ground.

"I-I know. You'll be okay. Just don't try to move anymore Natsu," Lucy said in a soothing voice. She was well aware that her skimpy bandages wouldn't stop his bleeding, but she had to do something for him. Lucy was amazed he regained consciousness so quickly, even with this hole in his body he somehow wasn't completely down and out. Though she'd never seen him in so much pain before, and that reminded her of Happy. When Lucy looked up, he was still fighting the strange man.

"How could you do that to Natsu?!" Happy screamed as he quickly flew all around the man, clearly just trying to annoying him.

"How you ask?" the man said with a smirk. "Well it's easy when your opponent is a brat that doesn't pay attention."

"But But you just hurt Natsu out of nowhere. Natsu doesn't even _know_ you," Happy shouted as he dive bombed the man one more time. This time, however; the man flicked his wrist and shot a blue flame at Happy. It hit him dead on and he was blasted back hitting the ground behind Natsu's silent form with a crippling crash.

"Happy!" Lucy screamed as she stood up.

"It doesn't matter who you _know_ , little kitten. The world is a dangerous place regardless of such silly things as that," the man said with a chuckle. He grabbed his hat with one hand and tipped it at Lucy. She watched him completely frozen, as his eyes became hidden under the darkness beneath his hat. His smile stretched from ear to ear and revealed strange razor sharp teeth in his mouth. His eyes glowed beady and bright red. "If you're not going to whip out a key and attack me right this instant, my precious celestial wizard...Then I'll just be taking my leave," he said in a slow voice that seemed to make the space between them swim.

Lucy shook off her paralysis at his words and reached into her satchel for one of her keys.

"Oh but I wouldn't recommend doing that now anyway…" The man said with his sharp teeth glistening. "The boy and the cat are badly injured. The boy more so. He doesn't have a lot of life left in him...if you know what I mean," the man added with a chuckle. He motioned with one white gloved hand that seemed to appear out from the nothingness of his black cape, to the pool of blood surrounding Natsu.

Lucy clenched her teeth, fished around her bag for a different celestial key and then turned to the man with an icy stare. His smile grew wider in response.

"I don't know who you are and I don't care. You will pay for what you've done," Lucy said. She turned her attention back to Natsu and added with the same ferocity, "...Later." She then pulled a silver key out and called, "Gate of the Clock I open thee."

Horologium appeared in a puff of white smoke. "Oh my, what's happened here?" he asked bringing his hands to his clock face in surprise.

"Please carry Natsu back to the guild for me...I can't carry him and Happy there by myself," Lucy explained as tears welled in her eyes.

"O-Of course My Lady," Horologium responded as he picked Natsu up and put him inside his clock body as gently as possible.

"T-Thank you," Lucy said as she gingerly picked up Happy and cradled him in her arms.

"You're welcome…" Horologium responded a bit hesitantly as they started to walk back. The man watched all of this and kept on chuckling throughout it. As Lucy walked away, every so often she would turn around to glare at the man, but he found that to be even more amusing and simply laughed harder.

When he could no longer mock Lucy, he readjusted his hat to cover his eyes completely and swished his cape around to hide his body. "Seems that girl wants to teach me a lesson...I look forward to it," he said to himself. He then closed his mouth, covering his smile and began to walk in the opposite direction of Lucy.


End file.
